RESEARCH UPDATE JOHN LAWSON
42
HUMAN RESOURCES
SPRING 2019
5
8
17
20 1
20
20 15
20 16
3
20 14
20 1
/2 10
20 12
08
1
01
20 09
20
6
0
20
Average % turnover in first 12 months employment
35 30 25 20 15 10 5
18 20
17 20
20 15
20 16
20 14
13 20
1
01
2 0/
1 20
20 12
0
20 09
In 2018, however, we discussed the new forces affecting the turnover of staff. First the rapid change to the composition of our workforce.
15 10
20 08
The New Zealand Staff Turnover Survey was first published in 2006. Consequently, we now have over a decade of data that covers the latest economic cycle. The survey results clearly emphasise the cyclical nature of staff turnover and its relationship to the strength of the economy.
25 20
20 07
The survey also reports on the use of the 90-day trial period, the reasons for voluntary turnover and the retention strategies being employed by New Zealand companies.
Secondly, technology is rapidly changing the availability of new work opportunities for your employees. Big data, AI and machine learning are enabling recruitment platforms such as LinkedIn to find your staff more easily. The future will be about being found for work, not finding jobs to apply for, suggesting that with more opportunities for work being presented to your employees, we would expect greater mobility and voluntary turnover.
Average national staff turnover %
20 07
The Lawson Williams National Staff Turnover Survey is supported by HRNZ and is in its 12th year. It provides a measure of staff turnover and has once again produced interesting findings that help participating companies to better understand the performance of their recruitment, onboarding and retention processes.
20 0
Measuring staff turnover
For example, millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996) currently account for 34 per cent of New Zealand's labour force, and by 2020 will be the majority. Forty-three per cent of this group plan to leave their company within two years. We know that millennials have a very different view of work from the baby boomers. Will they hunker down in their current job just because the economy is weaker?
20 06
Voluntary turnover holds steady as involuntary turnover climbs rapidly, results from the National Staff Turnover Survey now show.
The question to be answered is, if the economy continues to cycle as predicted by the economists and we move into a period of lower growth, will we see the traditional climb in involuntary turnover and the corresponding fall in voluntary turnover? Will these new factors or others affect the traditional cyclical nature of staff turnover? The results from this survey show that we haven’t seen a full repeat of 2008 yet. What we have seen is a rapid climb in involuntary turnover at an alarming and almost identical rate to the start of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), but interestingly the size of the rise in involuntary
